May 15, 2007 - The City of Knoxville
is joining Knox County Wednesday, May 16, to celebrate National
Employee Health & Fitness Day.

Included among the activities will be a walk led by Mayor Bill
Haslam, some health-related "Lunch and Learn," programs
on "Workday Wellness" and a badminton tournament on the
City County Building lawn pitting teams from the city against the
county.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee; the Knoxville Track Club,
the YMCA of East Tennessee and Court South, are all involved in
the activities.

This is the first time the City has officially taken part in National
Employee Health & Fitness Day.

Kessala Dorsey, a benefits coordinator with the City's Risk Management
office who is one of the coordinators of the event said the city
wants to support activities that encourage employees to live healthier.

"We want to keep our employees healthy and we want to keep
them around here longer," Dorsey said before adding that the
city would like the event to grow.

"When it does grow we'll have more competitions, different
speakers and two or three lunch and learns going on at the same
time," she said.

The schedule begins at 10 a.m. when Mayors Haslam and Ragsdale
issue a joint proclamation declaring it National Employee Health
& Fitness Day in Knoxville and Knox County.

Mayor Haslam and representatives from Blue Cross Blue Shield, the
YMCA, the Knoxville Track Club and Court South will then lead a
walk through downtown Knoxville to Market Square and back.

The lunch and learns are set for noon to 1 p.m. in the Human Resources
Conference room in the City County Building and from 11 a.m. to
1 p.m. in the Knox County Health Department's Community Room.

The badminton tournament will begin at 1:30 p.m. on the City County
Building lawn.

Dorsey said representatives from the YMCA and Court South will
be doing a nutrition spot while speakers from the Knoxville Track
Club and Blue Cross Blue Shield will discuss the Walking Works program
during the Lunch and Learn.

She said the city plans to get involved in the Walking Works program
and hopes to encourage employees to walk in the downtown area and
on greenways among other sites.

"We thought it would be great to make it into a competition
with the county," she said. "We thought if we made a friendly
competition out of it, that would keep up the interest."

Dorsey said the city hopes to install software on its intranet
that would allow employees in the program to convert their steps,
or the distances they walked on a greenway, for instance, into miles.

"I'm excited about it (the day)," she said. "When
we spark the interest it will be bigger next year and in years to
come.